Teachings of a Witch

"What is magic?"

Tristan asked innocently. From all his readings of historical epics and bards descriptions as well as his studies he had a vague idea, but his teacher, Melany had kept the true meaning elusive till this moment. Melany looked towards the distance and sighed gloomily.

"I do not know what magic is. The phenomenology of magic is one of the greatest mysteries of magic. What we do know to some extent is how it works and how to use it to do things we normally wouldn't be able to. For example create fire by thinking or freeze water into ice."

While saying that she held out her palm and a swirling mass of water formed, hovering over it. It then turned into a frozen sphere of ice before melting because of being surrounded by a flame and then disappearing. Tristan is shocked on seeing that magic. Melany continues her lecture.

"There are many kinds of magic. That is perhaps the most important thing to understand. There are so many different kinds of magic that even the way they can be classified isnt definite and differs by the manner of classification. They could be classified as attack magic, defense magic and manipulation magic or perhaps as holy, dark and neutral magic or even more specifically according to the elements fire, water, wind and so on. But none of the classifications are true classifications of magic. There are people who claim that if we know the underlying magic we can create fire magic from water and vice versa. But so far none have been able to. However, you must remember only this, never use magic to hurt other people. Magic is an ability not everyone can use, its possible that even you cannot. But if you can, you must always be respectful of the power you weild and never become arrogant!"

Tristan nodded faithfully. He didn't have ambitions of power or being a hero like the history. He loved knowledge and he wanted to travel. He wished to learn for the sake of learning alone. And being arrogant? The more he learnt, the more he felt he knew very little! He had no time to be arrogant!

Melany proceeded to dump several tens of books on a table in front of Tristan. Kept a twig on top of the books. A mortar and pestle accompanied it.

"You will learn to first supply manna, which is the magical power inside of you directly into medicines making according to these alchemy books. Take this book too, it is an introduction to alchemic arrays both transmutation and nontransmutational. These books are after you have completed the first two sets. They contain elementary spells of water, wind, fire and earth magic."

Tristan heard her long extending monotone with an expression that described being overwhelmed with the infodump. He then slowly nodded.

"Alright aunt, I'm starting right away. I can't thank you enough!"

"Thank me? Remember, don't thank me until you believe you have mastered them. You will be your own judge! This is not going to be easy. I will be travelling to Constine city and won't be back for atleast a year. If you think you have accomplished mastery of the subjects open this book. It is an enchanted book that you won't be able to open until you have mastered the basics ive left you completely. You won't be disappointed."

After completing her strict teacher act a gentle smile reforms on Melany's face. She goes to Tristan and hugs him.

"I must leave today with the merchant who arrived yesterday. Take care of yourself and everyone in the village until I return... I'm leaving the herbalist shop to your care until then. Make medicines for the sick."

Tristan shocked at the sudden turn of events was left dumbstruck for a few moments. But after listening to his aunt, whom he idolized over all others, tears started forming in his eyes.

"Such a sudden departure...I'll miss you aunt Melany. Please take care of yourself and return soon with souvenirs and stories of your adventure. The shop... I'll do my best."

****

Melany is about to depart from Sindry village and is meeting the village head and other elders to explain about the shifting of responsibilities to young Tristan. The elders are flabbergasted and look at Tristan, who is displaying his wooden sculptures to the merchant to sell, with incredulity.

"Don't worry Elder-Jim. That boy... I have handed him the responsibility only because I know he is capable. His intellect is remarkable, a genius of the kind I haven't seen before. He will soon surpass me and I must better myself in Constine before I can face him again as a teacher. He has already been preparing most of the medicines for the past few months. I will return in a year, please take care of yourselves."

Melany convinces them (and herself) that she is not over estimating Tristan, hugs Lara her dearest friend who is also like her younger sister and goes to Tristan who is busy describing each sculpture to the merchant.

"... And this is a sculpture of my dog Charmy swimming in the lake that forms when the ice melts. It is the best carving I made yet."

"Hmm... It looks pretty good for a kid like you to have made it. But you must improve further, objectively I'd say this is a a slightly above average piece of work. Read some book about sculptures to get some ideas about improving."

"Mister..this is a small village in the middle of the Urek mountains. Where would I find a book on sculptures and sculpting here?"

Tristan didn't like being told that his hard work was mediocre, but he understood that he had little knowledge about the world, especially compared to a traveller like Mister Merchant.

"How about this... You sell me this piece, in return I will bring you books regarding sculpting that I can buy from the sale of this piece in Constine city. I will return after two months after all."

"Yes, that would be optimal."

Tristan tried to sound businesslike imitating the merchant but the glee in his voice could clearly be made out by everyone in present there who laughed.

An embarrassed Tristan turned around to find Melany standing there, ruffling his hair she bids farewell and departs along with the Merchant.

****

As the entourage disappeared down the route going through the long route winding through the mountains, the villagers slowly went back home while Tristan immediately sat down and began painting the scene of his teacher, his aunt and his ideal departing, putting all heart into the picture.

Three kids stayed behind looking at Tristan passionately painting, a sad piercing look in his eyes and slowly sit beside him waiting to finish his painting. They were all of his age, his peers who tried to befriend him, but Tristan had always been the introverted type who preferred to stay busy than talking to friends. Rudi a boy 6 years old, Miza a girl who was also 6 years old and Diane a girl who was 5.

When Tristan finally finished his work, he wiped the sweat off his forehead and the startled to see the three folks who are always around trying to help him. Tristan understands their behavior and feels thankful for their support, but at the same time he does not know how to reciprocate back. Since he was an infant, Tristan has always been extremely observant of his surroundings and matured surprisingly quickly. As a consequence he felt it difficult to identify himself with his peers, perhaps it was his arrogance. After all, no matter how many absurd responsibilities he thought he could handle, he was still a 5 year old kid.

Rudi patted his shoulder and asked him if he was feeling ok. Miza went wherever Rudi went. Diane looked at Tristan, her face flushed red.

"Are you sad, Tristan?"

"I guess I am a little sad. But there is no point lamenting at the departure if my teacher. One day I too will travel far in her footsteps. She has left me the path to achieve my dream and I must follow it."

"Guess our job is pointless eh? Tristan you made of steel?"

Rudi joked as he jabbed Tristan in the shoulder which made him push Diane.

"I'm sorry Diane. This nutcase Rudi. Where do you think you are running?"

Tristan was no athlete so he gave up trying to chase the devilish Rudi and turned to offer Diana a hand to get up.

"Are you ok Diane? Looks like you got a scrape, come to the herbalist shop, I'll apply a bandage on it."

"Diane meekly nodded."

****

As Tristan was carefully applying the Bandage to Diane's scraped knee, she winced, causing Tristan to be even more gentle.

"Is this alright Diane? Tell me if it hurts. That rock was viscious, hmm."

"I'm better now Tristan. Thank you for bandaging me."

As Diane looked around the shop she opened her mouth again.

"Are you going to run the shop alone?"

"Yes, after all teacher left it all to me. I want to study too though. So I won't have much time to hang around you guys.."

"But...then can I help you with the shop? If I help you manage the shop then you can study more freely right? I don't have anything to do either. May-maybe you can teach me?"

Tristan looked at Diane, who was truly blushing like a primrose. He noticed her appearance for the first time today. A simple dress, blonde hair tied into a simple ponytail and a shy charm made Tristan befuddled for a moment.

"Ye-yeah. I'd love that. I can teach you what I know about the herbs and mushrooms."

****

Tristan decided to create a buffer medicinal stock and taught Diane about which medicine to use for which illness, how to ground basic herbs to help stomach upsets for a week and also to handle to store. He would pay her 2 coppers a day for work from the profits of the store. He then proceeded to begin his trials!

Tristan was learning to implement medical alchemy with great vigor. Upon studying the books carefully he realised he had already learned all aspects in his basic training and had to learn to use pure magical energy.

Magical energy is a kind if energy that resides in all objects, an energy of potential that can be transformed into various acts. Tristan guessed that the act of transforming this energy into meaningful ideas like creating fire or creating a blob of water is infact what is the principle to create a magic spell, an invocation which stabilizes the thought to manifest this idea from energy.

However more can be done with the magical energy or manna. Instead of transforming it, Tristan was learning the first basic step of directly transferring it out of his body. To do that he had to first identify his internal energy.

Tristan began meditating under a tree in front of the lake as the books suggested that the basic method to identify one's manna is to meditate on the self. He tried to imagine himself down to his bare constituents. Based on the knowledge he learnt, the human body was composed of various organs and each organ had its own system. A combination of several systems, but at the same time there was a fundamental unit smaller than organs that composed all but were different, the cell. As he imagined himself composed of the cells. The complicated actions of large number of cells generating complexity from such a simple processes working in random billions of times over.

Our consciousness, our sense of self, the auto regulation of our organs, our thoughts, our emotions are all complexities arriving out of simplistic processes. Tristan grasped this idea and began to unravel how each of these complexities developed by following the motion of each cell, each molecule. Manna too he surmised is such an emergent complexity that he might only grasp if he unravels the other mysteries first.

As he slowly deciphered each mystery, it felt like peeling the skin of an onion for each time he came across eightenment there was another muster to unpack. As he finally reached the end he felt a bottleneck. He couldn't peel anymore. So he kept pursuing.

****

Tristan finally opened his eyes. He wasn't under the tree. He slowly got up. It was the Herbalist store! There was a bed made and he was lying on it. His mom seemed to have dozed off as she was sitting on a chair near the wall. Someone was holding onto his hand tightly. Diane! She was asleep too, but there was food kept beside the bed.

Tristan slowly awoke like nothing happened, used his free hand to grab an apple beside Diane and started eating it. The crunching sounds awoke Diane and Lara who were shocked!

"Tristan! You are alright! What happened to you son!?"

Diane was sobbing uncontrollably as she hugged him tightly. Tristan held her tightly and consoled her by gently stroking her head. He then looked at his mom, Lara. His eyes seemed calm and gentle. They carried the burden of knowledge he acquired over his contemplative studies. He realised now what had happened, but decided to confirm anyway.

"I'm really sorry mom. I had no idea how long I was in the meditative state. I'm perfectly fine. Please calm down. How long has it been?"

Hearing her son's voice seemed to have a soothing effect on both Lara and Diane who calmed down embarrassed sat down on the bed beside Tristan's knee.

"Three weeks. You were asleep for three weeks son! You did not drink water or food, but you stayed alive for three weeks and now you are awake like nothing happened? The entire village was worried, and we got a shaman from the neighbouring town who said you are fine, but in deep sleep. He said you will wake up soon, but we had no idea when. Oh..Tristan.. What happened?"

As Lara began sobbing again Tristan soothed her down. He caught her hand and suddenly she felt a little revitalised and his soothing voice calmed her down. He then looked at the half eaten apple in his hand and suddenly the apple which was browning became fresh again.

"I was meditating to understand the principles of magic mother. It seems I had a much deeper enlightenment regarding magic than teacher possibly intended me to have. It seems I have learnt magic transfer."

****

After the chaos over Tristan's meditative state settled, Tristan apologised to every villager and even sent some new medicines he personally made for the Shaman in the neighbouring village for his help. His father punished him by making him exercise like crazy.